


Something Wicked This Way Comes

by birdybirdnerd



Series: Ego and Id [1]
Category: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson
Genre: Body Horror, Gen, Psychological Horror, much to come
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-21
Updated: 2017-03-22
Packaged: 2018-10-08 22:29:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10397610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/birdybirdnerd/pseuds/birdybirdnerd
Summary: "I didn't know it would be this bad. I have made a disastrous mistake."





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> new story?
> 
> new story
> 
> hey yall longer work in the works i guess, idk what im doing here, just ignore the shortness of this and tell me what you think, ill be over here working on the other six or seven projected chapters

_ From the Personal Journal of Dr. Henry Jekyll, September 24, 18- _

_ Controlling Hyde has been getting harder as of late.  _

_ It has been months since this little experiment of mine first started. I have turned to Hyde numerous times, more than I am proud to admit, but each time it gets easier. I at first saw this as a good thing, a sign of my growing control over him. But now I know it is the opposite; he is gaining far more control over me than I thought possible. My id is learning, is becoming more than he should, and each day it grows harder and harder to turn back to Jekyll.   _

_ I forget myself most days, losing track of who I am, whether I am ego or id, Jekyll or Hyde, Henry or the accursed Edward. He moves things when I am him, writing notes in places I do not find them until far later, tampering with my experiments in ways that have ruined them before. It is infuriating, and worrying, and it cannot continue if the good of man, the good of me is to continue.  _

_ I am concocting a new chemical, one that I hope to use to fix this problem. The first potion was to separate the two of us, and it worked, though only partially. This new one is stronger, using a chemical composition with purer elements that should have a better effect than the first one. With this new drink, I should be able to separate himself from me completely, in such a way that destroys him utterly. Then and only then, will my original experiment be completed. I will have eliminated my inner demons and risen to a position of pure morality. While prancing about London at night as Hyde has been immeasurably fun, it has had consequences on myself and my health, especially if how dependent on him I have grown is any indication.  _

_ I still have much work to do on the composition before it is ready, but should it work, my life’s work will be completed, and I will be an exalted man in society once again.  _

_ My only hope is that Hyde does not ruin things before then.  _


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so ive been on a roll lately. again shorter than id like but you know what?? fuck

****“ _You will fail,”_ Hyde whispered, ever the charmer, in my ear.

“Of course I shall,” I replied, measuring an amount of salts and pouring them in another beaker. “Because that is what happens when one dedicates his life to a purpose. He always fails. That makes sense, as you always do.”

Something dark tittered in my ear, tickling the hair at my temple. “ _Sarcasm befits you, Jekyll.”_

“Not more so than it does you.” I stirred the concoction with a long spoon, being careful not to scrape the sides. It bubbled and hissed, the sounds it made on par with Hyde in my head.

He chuckled mirthlessly. “ _My thanks. But back to the matter at hand. You will fail, as you did before, this of which I guarantee._ ”

I set the beaker down before I smashed it in frustration. “Would you, for once in your life _I gave you,_ please silence yourself? I am sick of your words in my ear, telling me this and that, negative negative negative. Let me work in peace, for once!”

_“I am afraid that’s impossible, my dear. After all, I am but a manifestation of your inner demons, as you are so fond of reminding me.”_

“Well, my inner demons need to learn some silence,” I bit out. “I am glad to be rid of you, when I am done here. The evils you have wrought on me and mine are too much, too far. Once this potion is complete, I will be a whole man, good, moralistic, and won’t have to deal with you in my ear every moment of the day.”

Hyde snarled, a sound so full of hate that I flinched. _“You will never be rid of me!”_ he yelled, my head pounding with the noise. “ _I am_ ** _you!_** _I am everything you are, everything you want! To kill me is to kill yourself, and I know how much of a coward you are, Henry. The only way to ‘be rid of me’, as I am some cockroach to sneer at, is to_ ** _kill yourself!_** **”**

I slammed my hands down on the desk, scattering pens. “ _Silence!”_ I yelled back. “You know not of what you speak! This is _my_ life, not yours. You are part of me, and if I have to tear you out to be myself again _by God I’ll do it!”_

Hyde cackled, grating on my ears, as nonexistent as he was yet still managing to infuriate me further. “ _There’s my doctor! Yes! Let the fury wash over you, let it take you! Let me_ **_out!_ ** ”

I felt myself slipping, the reins on my body changing hands without consent. I panicked, realizing he meant to do this, to knock me so off course I had no control, so he could swoop in and snatch my body to use as his own. “You monster,” I growled, closing my eyes and struggling to stay in one piece. “Just try that again, and you will stop existing faster than you can laugh.”

He laughed again, as if to prove I wouldn’t dare. But I would. Body now firmly under my control, I grabbed the nearest vial and brought it to my eye, examining it. The contents were a dull orange, but as I added another chemical and swirled it around, it changed to a bubbling violet. Perfect.

“Try me again, and this is your fate,” I said, as if Hyde could hear.

He did, and snickered. “ _You wouldn’t dare. The repercussions from such an act could kill you, and it is as I said: you have not the courage.”_

“If you say so,” I laughed bitterly, and tilted the vial back.

I heard Hyde screech once before pain engulfed my body. The liquid was barely down my throat before it begun working, wracking agony, fire burning down my spine and up my arms. I expected the pain and gritted my teeth, struggling to not let the pain, to not let _Hyde_ better me. But his agonizing screaming shattered my ears and I failed, misery sounding through my soul and painting my vocal chords with red.

It felt off from the usual transformation; instead of the bone-wrenching anguish as my body reorganized itself, it was more a burning pain, a suffering of the soul. I felt it yank my being two separate ways, pulling and tearing and wrenching things apart that really should stay together. I felt Hyde’s torment as my own, spiralling and spinning and dizzying in its intensity. My mouth hung open, soundless shrieks the only thing coming out now, too spent to scream as my spirit divided and died.

After countless hours had passed (or rather, less than a few minutes, though those moments lasted lifetimes), I awoke to find myself prone, in the middle of the cabinet floor. Everything felt off, as if I had been ripped apart and put back together haphazardly. Unlike usual, after turning to Hyde or back, my body felt none the different. I glanced in the full-length mirror, dragged into the cabinet for this very use, and saw my own body, mine, as it had always been. No sign of Hyde, yet everything still felt wrong. As if the world had shifted around me, but left me off-kilter and unsteady.

I pulled myself to my feet and stretched, old bones creaking with the strain of it. “Hyde?” I called, though I needn’t had to, for as he was a part of my mind, all I should have to do was think it and he hear.

I got no response, not even a stirring of malice, a malevolent thought, a wayward feeling. Nothing. I smiled. “Hyde?” I called again, already knowing I would get no answer. And none did I get.

He was gone.

I nearly whooped with joy, but the strain of what I had put my body through was pulling at my eyes. I glanced out the window and sighed at the late hour.

I spent some hours cleaning up the mess my internal argument and subsequent flailing had made, setting things right before putting out the lamp. I wandered across the yard to my home, where the servants were already asleep. Poole nodded at me as I passed, on his way to his chambers for the night; he was usually the last to go, before me. I nodded back, smiling tiredly. He did not question.

I still had much work to do to unravel the problems Hyde had created, but for now, it was time to sleep. It could wait until the morning.

The nightmares that plagued me that night went unremembered.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im just. not gonna stop am i
> 
> lanyon cameo! not much to it and very brief but eh

****I awoke, gasping for breath, to a most confusing and worrisome sight.

My bedroom, so meticulously cared for and cleaned, was an absolute mess. Papers were strewn across the floor, clothes hanging from furniture as if thrown to the side in a hurry, chairs were overturned and the door to my closet was hanging open, loose in its hinges. It was as if a tornado had run through the place while I slept soundly, tearing my life apart but leaving me and my bed alone, through some miracle. It was maddening, but most of all, curious.

Had I changed at night, at some point, to that fearful creature I thought I destroyed? Had he taken me by surprise while I slept, using my body to shred my room to pieces around me, then laid down after the carnage was finished and slept on? Had he done this, just to spite me? Or was he looking for something?

No, it was impossible. Though they grew less painful as of late, transformations from one to the other were not an ordeal one could sleep through. I would have woken, if not when Hyde took over, then definitely when he left. It would have been obvious what he did. He wouldn’t have gotten away with it, as it appeared he had.

No, something else must have happened. The only explanation I could think of was that either, it was there when I went to bed and I just didn’t see it, leftover from some other tantrum he might have thrown; or perhaps it was a servant on a rampage, desperate to destroy something of mine while I slept, and getting a bit out of hand with it. I would be hard-pressed to find out who, in that case, but it would make more sense than Hyde seemingly slipping into my sleeping body and destroying my room while I slept on, oblivious, unaware.

I stretched and yawned, wondering why I awoke in such a state of terror, unable to remember the dream that brought it on. Something dark pressed at my mind, struggling to be remembered, but failing in light of the state of my room distracting me. All that _could_ be remembered, was a feeling of helplessness, that something had gone terribly, terribly wrong, and that I needed to fix it as soon as I woke up.

Well, I was awake, but I could scarce remember the problem. That wasn’t good.

I rose and dressed, pushing the conundrum to the back of my mind, thinking it not as important as my dreaming mind sought it to be. I had a job to return to, one I had abandoned far too long in pursuit of other things. Darker things. Things that no longer troubled me, so that I could return to a job I once enjoyed.

I bid the servants to clean up the mess in my room on the way out, letting Poole know to fix the closet door as well. I was served breakfast quickly, then ushered out and to work as per usual.

The work day was unremarkable. Nothing of interest happened, after my reintroduction to what I had been missing, and no one batted much of an eye at my reappearance. I focused on my medicine, on curing others whose ailments paled in comparison to what I’d recently been through. I made no comment, however, at the state of things, and left soon after my work was completed.

On the way out, I ran into Mr. Lanyon, an old friend I hadn’t seen much of since before I started my work on splitting myself (what a disaster he’d projected it to be; how correct he was!), and he was curious at my sudden reemergence into society.

“Oh, I figured it was high time I dropped all that silly work on the mind,” I laughed, waving my hand and the question off. “It only ended in disaster, so I quit it. You were right, dear fellow, all along. I shouldn’t have doubted you.”

Lanyon seemed surprised at my confession, but quickly pleased. “Why, thank you,” he said happily. “I knew you would see the light some day. I take it you have returned to us for good this time? Last time you said this, it was scarce a few months before you shut yourself away again.”

“Yes, it is good this time,” I agreed. “Last time I hit a new revelation, but that quickly fell apart under close examination. I am back for good, no worry at that.”

Truth be told, I had been getting close to telling him. Before I had the idea to make the potion to kill Hyde once and for all, I almost went to Lanyon for help. I was this close to telling him my darkest secret. I refrained when the new idea came to me, the idea that finally saved me.

We parted ways not too long after that, agreeing to meet up sometime and share a meal, catch up on old times. But for now he had a home to return to, and I mine. I left the hospital in good spirits.

Spirits that shattered when I made my way back to my room, to change in time for dinner.

The room was a mess, despite ordering a cleanup at my leave this morning. I hailed a passing servant and pointed to the mess, demanding why it was still there.

She seemed spooked. “I swear, sir, we cleaned it up this mornin’,” she said, all in a fright. “I don’t know why it’s back, I swear. W-We’ll have it cleaned up in a jiffy, sir. I promise.”

I dismissed her, ice dripping down my spine. Something was terribly wrong, something I couldn’t put my finger to. What had happened while I was away? I knew my household staff to be respectable; they said they had cleaned, I believed them. So that meant that while I was at work, someone else stole into my bedroom and recreated the tornado that blew through this morning, before I awoke. It was a conundrum that gave one a headache, so I passed it off to worry about later. My stomach was protesting at the delay.

I ate dinner, then returned after the mess was cleared away. Yawning, I turned in for the night, closing my eyes against the glare of the gas lamps outside my window, ready for a peaceful sleep and to figure out the problem come morning.

I closed my eyes, only to be faced with the dark, mad eyes of a man I thought dead and gone.

“Hyde!” I shouted, backing away. I was no longer in bed, but rather in a dark room, featureless, foreboding. He stood in front of me, stooped and brooding, yet seeming more real than ever before. His arms were folded delicately behind his back, strange and strangely handsome but disfigured in a way only visible to the soul, his coat torn and face twisted in a sneering grin. That face was directed at me, foul, hatred oozing from his grimace.

 _“This is only the beginning,”_ he whispered, stepping closer. I backed away, or tried to. Something held me in place, stopping me from moving, from struggling as he stepped up to me, narrow nose nearly touching mine. He looked from eye to eye, his own dancing with malicious glee.

 _“There is so much coming that you have no idea of, that you cannot possibly comprehend,”_ he said. “ _Today was just a test. Tomorrow, you see the full extent of what you’ve done, and what I can do.”_

_“All thanks to you…”_

I awoke with a start, to streaming daylight, to maddening laughter, and to absolute chaos.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im just gonna stop apologizing for the length, these are probs gonna be all short

****The world was on fire, and it was my fault.

“Hyde!” I shouted out the window, over the sounds of the citizens screaming and my evil counterpart laughing. The maniacal laughter ceased, followed shortly by a sound like a fly being zapped by lightning. Hyde stood behind me, ragged and glowing faintly green. Tendrils of some otherwordly energy fluttered off his form, giving him an ethereal look that scared me. I bolstered my courage and stepped towards him, throwing my arm out towards the window, gesturing at the carnage my home had become.

“What have you done?” I asked furitively.

He chuckled madly, the light in his dark eyes shining too bright to be good. “ _Do you mean, what have_ **_you_ ** _done, my dear doctor. This is all thanks to you.”_

What? I glanced out the window at the fires raging across the city in spurts and bursts. Buildings had fallen, leaving hundreds homeless. Those that were in the streets still ran screaming, crying, mothers clutching babes to their breasts and men furiously batting away flames, fighting to save themselves and those they loved. “How do you mean?”

 _“It was your concoction that made me as I am in the first place, all those months ago,”_ Hyde snickered. “ _And the new one only sealed the deal. I am irrevocably connected to the very ether that makes this world, in such a way that gives me power you could only dream of. In other words: you fucked up!”_ He cackled, floating high in the room, lashing energy wrapping around my arms and pinning them to my sides. Thunder boomed, rattling the window panes and cracking them and my psyche. This could not be possible.

“Someone will stop you,” I called over the laughter. “ _I_ will stop you!”

“ _Oh, how cute,”_ Hyde crooned, floating closer. He traced my cheek with an over-sharp nail, drawing a thin line of blood that dripped down my neck. _“The little doctor thinks he can stop_ **_God._ ** ” His voice boomed and he slashed, cutting long lines into my face. I screamed, the fiery pain lancing through my nerves. Blood poured down my face in rivulets, getting in my eyes and mouth. I spat it out, sneering at the monster I created.

“I _will_ stop you,” I vowed. “I know not how, or when, but you I will stop you. I promise.”

 _“I’d like to see you try,”_ he said, rising again. His tendrils of energy wrapped me tight, cutting off my air. The room darkened, throwing deep shadows across the mess his whirlwind of energy was creating. Nightmares lashed at the corners of the room, at the edges of reality, waiting to be released. Flames licked my feet, though I couldn’t tell if they were real or figments created to scare me. They were working at that.

I plunged suddenly down, and screamed.

Into a dark world where my nightmares became reality, I fell. I didn’t know if this was a dream, but if it was, it was so terrifyingly real. Creatures from some horrible underworld clawed at me, tearing my body to shreds. An unearthly light would put me back together again, barely, pieces all wrong and not fitting together, only for the creatures to return, to begin again. Unimaginable horrors tormented me, screaming and crying, an unending cacophony that made my ears bleed. I clawed at the walls of my mind, struggling to escape to find some repentance from this neverending torture, but to no avail. I was held fast, under the water, my screams bubbling up and out and tearing my vocal chords to shredded slivers that burned and fried and sizzled like my skin, my bones breaking and reforming and breaking and breaking _me_ until I **_broke-_ **

And everything went blessedly, eternally dark, and everything ended, and I felt my physical body slip between my fingers, and I knew.

Hyde had taken control, and Hyde had won.

I screamed, but nobody heard.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my fingers hurt

****Everything was dark but blindingly bright, everything hurt and hurt and _hurt_. Together and apart, my body was pulled together and torn apart so many times I lost count, went numb to it all. Screeching laughter rang in my ears- my own? Or _his?_ I couldn’t tell anymore, I was so far gone in my own mind. I couldn’t tell where I ended and he began, where he ended and madness took hold and I was spiralling, falling, landing painfully against the cold, hard ground, and the cycle stopped, and began again.

My mind was my worst enemy, tearing my psyche and clawing my will, snarling and fighting back but failing, always failing, not strong enough to save me no matter what I did, no matter the consequences of the failure, no matter how much I begged and pleaded and asked “Why, why me?”

My beautiful city burned outside me, while I burned within.

The cycle ended again, but before it could start back, an endless rotation of pain and suffering, cold hands closed around my shoulders and _yanked_. I stumbled back, coming back to myself, becoming aware of a darkness not as dark as the one I was trapped in, standing in front of me, shaking my shoulders and yelling “Henry, get ahold of yourself!”

I blinked, suddenly aware that I was looking in a mirror. Or at least, it seemed as such, until the mirror hauled back and slapped me across the face, startling me out of my numbness.

“What-”

“ _There_ he is, that’s my Henry,” the not-mirror said, smiling brightly, too brightly for this dark place we were in. White teeth glittered in a nonexistent light, sparkling in the darkness. His eyes that matched my own were kind, more kind than I remembered mine being, hidden smiles in their depths. He seemed insubstantial, faded even though he held me tightly. It was strange, though he seemed strangely familiar (apart from the obvious resemblance).

“Who- who are you?” I asked, pulling away from the doppelganger's embrace.

He smiled shyly, dark hair falling in his eyes. “I am your super-ego, Doctor Jekyll. All what makes you good and moralistic, is all that I am. It is all I know.” The surprise I felt must have shown on my face, as he then laughed. It was nicer than Hyde’s grating cackling, and I felt myself smile as well.

“But where have you been?” I asked. “Why are you here? Why did you not follow Hyde out into the real world when I first made the separation?”

“Because, unfortunately, Edward is much stronger than I ever will be,” he said softly. “I barely had the control to keep your impulses down, those first months during the experiment. As he grew stronger, I grew weaker, ‘till I hadn’t energy enough to save you from his eventual overthrowing of the mind.”

“Then why are you here now?”

He smiled, bright again after the melancholy of his last statement. “He is unfocused, distracted more by his destruction and control over your realm, and unable to muffle me as he once did. Now that he has control over a body as well as the power you gave him-” I winced “-he no longer cares for keeping me down. I have been quiet this past week, slowly growing in power, until I had enough energy to save you.”

“Save me?” I asked, baffled.

“Yes!” My super-ego clapped, excited. “I have gathered just enough energy to spring you from this prison Edward has enforced, and enough to hold him down once you are out! But only for a limited time, which is why we must work fast once that happens.

“But I have a plan.” He grinned malevolently, looking more like Hyde than I cared to admit.

We spoke for some time, plotting a way out, and then, a way to stop my evil half for good. I came to calling this new part of me Joseph, after a good friend of mine in university. The name suited him; happy, optimistic, and ready to fight for a good and just cause. Joseph lived up to his name, giving me ideas and helping me weave them into a larger plan to defeat Hyde and set his chaos back to as it was before.

We shook hands, ready some hours later (or was it? Time passed like molasses in here, yet seemed to slip by like oil). Joseph pulled me into a hug, which surprised me, but was pleasing all the same. I embraced him back, then stepped away.

“Ready?” I asked. This would put a strain on my dear super-ego’s already fragile existence, and I wanted to be sure he knew this.

“I am sure. Let’s go.” He grinned and gave me two thumbs up, then disappeared.

I closed my eyes and concentrated. Through the inky blackness, I searched until I found a strand of existence, a single thread leading back to control. Hyde was careless, distracted, having too much fun wreaking havoc on the world to care for this one little thread. After all, to his knowledge, I was suffering in a pit of despair in my own mind. I was nothing to worry about.

I looped my hand around that string and yanked.

Consciousness bloomed through me, and I opened my eyes to the carnage Hyde had wrought. Bodies strewn across the street, buildings tumbled to the ground, dust and fire raging across the land greeted me. It was truly hellish, and I almost balked at it, returning to the comforting shell of darkness Joseph and I had created.

But Hyde had noticed. _“Well, well, well,”_ he crooned, and I felt my lips move without my accord as he spoke. _“Looks like someone won out over his inner demons. How quaint.”_

 _Not yet,_ I thought, and _pushed._

Hyde screeched audibly as he felt himself slip from control, the reins over our shared body passing accidentally to my hands. I felt him struggle to regain control, but my will strengthened, his weakened, and through Joseph’s help, I managed to wrangle Hyde’s consciousness into submission. He screamed one last time, before falling silent.

I flexed my fingers, enjoying having control over my own body again. It ached, making me wonder what Hyde had been up to in the week since this all started. Long scratches and burns ran up my arms, charred and torn clothes hanging off my emaciated body. My stomach rumbled, clueing me into the fact that once again, Hyde forgot to feed himself while in control of my body. That had to wait, though, for there were more pressing matters at hand.

I was outside a warehouse of some kind, a burned out shell of a building. There was not a living soul nearby, though plenty of dead ones lay about. I was almost sick to my stomach, my nonexistent dinner churning in the emptiness within. I turned away, covering my mouth and nose from the stench, and almost cried out at the sight of my dear friend Mr. Utterson, lying prone in the street, his cane through his middle. I dry heaved, running off, unable to stomach the sight any longer to pay my respects.

Across the street and down an alley, I dashed across London, weaving my way through the destruction to my old lab. It was untouched, seemingly fine, the only indication of the wreckage around a soot stain on the dingy door.

I wrenched it open and ran in, ignoring the sad sights around me, of my household staff dead and done for. Dear Mr. Poole sat at the table, no obvious sign of death about him, excepting the pale pallor to his brow that spoke of a heart attack. I sobbed, closing the laboratory door behind me.

Time was of the essence. Even now, I felt some semblance of Edward Hyde stirring within me. Joseph struggled to keep him subdued, but he was slowly coming to, and my super-ego could only hold down the id for so long.

I mixed furiously, recalling the chemical composition I had made recently, consulting old, torn notes and my infallible memory to recreate the drink that gave Hyde his power. Adding a few new components, I held it aloft, waiting the slow color change to occur and hoping I had it right.

Hyde was just starting to thrash about when I downed it in one gulp.

Pain flared through my body, familiar at this point, though this type had only happened once. I felt my soul torn in two, fragmenting off and spiralling out into pieces that should never be apart, but Henry Jekyll didn’t listen when it came to that and tore them apart anyways. Hyde screamed, feeling it too, and Joseph went deathly silent.

When I came to, it was blinking open to see a steaming, panting Hyde staring me down. He looked shell-shocked, unsure as he flexed his fingers, but grinned all the same. He looked _real._

“Are you sure this was your intended consequence?” he asked, laughing as I nodded.

“Because I believe you just made a horrible mistake.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dramatic confrontation time! hella

****It had started to rain.

We stared each other down, floating high above the ruined city. Red fire swirled around my hands, mirroring yet opposite of the sickly green tendrils that dripped off his. Water sloshed down my face, dripping in my eyes and soaking the ruined garments I wore, but I took no notice of it. I had eyes for nothing but Hyde, a mere twenty feet from me, torn and ragged and breathing heavily, looking like a mad king dethroned and awaiting either beheading or freedom, whichever he managed to snag first.

The silence crackled around us, reality bending under the strain of the two who were supposed to be one existing apart. Shadows danced at the edge of my vision but I ignored them, knowing any distraction meant Hyde would leap, would attack, and I would be done.

The new-found powers I had just given myself, set to match his, pulsed through my veins. Everything was sharp and bright, like fire itself ran in me in place of blood. I felt more alive than ever before, and that energy burst at the seams, struggling to be let out. But I had to wait for him to make the first move; to do first would also mean death.

He darted forward, faster than intended, almost too fast for me to catch, but I saw. I dropped like a stone, spinning and catching him in the side with a swipe of energy, burning away the clothes that dripped off him like embers and letting his attack barely miss me.

He must have forseen that, for he spun upside-down and shot at me, loose tendrils of sickness shooting forward and wrapping around my midsection, knocking the breath out of me. He laughed maniacally, tightening his grip, and slammed me to the ground, his own injury forgotten.

“Nice try, _Henry,_ but you’ll have to be faster to beat me!” he crowed.

I pushed myself up and launched myself at him, fire trailing from my hands. His taunting was cut short as I flew past him, he having spun out of the way in the nick of time. My hand caught a still-standing street lamp and I whirled around it, using my momentum to crash straight into him.

We grappled, having fallen to the ground, a clash of green and red like Christmas colors, blinding, burning, hissing and sputtering flames licking across the wet ground as we rolled around and fought like savage animals.

He ducked out from under my fist and backed away, kicking me in the chest as he went and put some space between us. Blood dripped down his face, mixing with the falling rain and washing away. His clothes were torn and burned, revealing a scarred chest. I wasn’t in a much better state; my breathing was labored, a lancing pain traveling up my ribs every time I sucked in a breath. One of my ribs was cracked, and the others no doubt bruised.

“Not looking too good now, are you, doctor?” Hyde asked, grinning maliciously. He licked at his lip, catching a rivulet of blood and spitting it out. Something white followed, and his grin looked suspiciously absent of a tooth when he showed it again. I felt pride well up inside me at the sight.

“You’ll never beat me,” he hissed, stepping closer and lifting off the ground an inch or two. I followed suit, backing away, keeping distance between us and planning, eyes glancing from side to side as I looked for an opening.

“Of course I will,” I said back, calculating. “I am the good, you are my id. Ego always prevails; it is my nature. I made a mistake, but it is time to clean it up.”

Hyde laughed. “If you really believe that, you are more idiotic than I thought,” he said. He darted forward but stopped quickly, watching me flinch back and laughing all the while. He was taunting me. “I am stronger than you could ever believe, and that’s all thanks to you. It matters not that you’ve managed to give yourself the same level of power you accidentally gave me, I’ve had it longer. I know how to use it. All this bollocks of ‘good and evil’, ‘ego and id’, will do you no good when I have you back in your mind, wrapped up nice and tight in your own personal hell.”

He circled around me, raising his hands. Viridian swam around us, whipping the rain into a frenzy. My hair hung in my face and I was forced to push it out of the way to keep Hyde in my sight.

“Hell, maybe I’ll forgo the hell,” Hyde added suddenly, cackling. “I’ll just kill you now, be rid of you forever. Then you’ll never have another chance to usurp me again, and I’ll be free forever to do what I want, _when_ I want, without having to worry about your ‘morals’ keeping me back!” He inched closer, closing in on me. His flowing energy kept me from backing up. “All I have to do, is get rid of _you.”_

He flew at me, but I’d found my opening. In the instant before he reached me, I closed my eyes and concentrated every last ounce of my power into a white-hot bolt of flame aimed directly at his unprotected middle. He screamed as it ripped through him, tearing his flesh and cauterizing the wound before it could bleed. A spattering of blood made it to the ground, sizzling briefly before it was washed away by the rain.

He clutched at his middle and collapsed, struggling to keep his insides from breaching the opening. Shock swam in his eyes, and as he looked up, I saw true fear in his expression.

I fell to my knees as well, directly in front of him, spent after the release of so much energy. The fires in my eyes and on my hands had died down, sputtering out in the drenching rain. I was barely able to keep my eyes open, but there was one last thing I needed to do before I passed out, to make sure this evil I had created left us for good.

I reached up to his forehead, channeling the last bit of energy in me into my fingertips.

“Now you are no more,” I whispered.

**_“NO!”_ **

I flew back, weak to the sudden outpouring of energy. Green fire raged around me, searing my skin. I screamed.

Hyde floated ten feet off the ground, hovering over me. Horrors poured from his limbs, darkness shadowing his very existence. Reality seemed to warp around him. Stones floated off the ground, fire dancing through the air, shadows curling around him and me, lifting him higher and pressing me down, down until I could barely fill my lungs through the effort. His pupil-less eyes burned a bright, sickly green, fire dancing out of them and trailing into the air.

 **_“YOU WILL NOT BEST ME,”_ ** he roared, making the very ground tremble. His features twisted into something ugly, torn and ravaged face warping into something devious, something downright beastly. He looked inhuman.

“Hyde-” I said, terror making me choke.

 **_“NO!”_ ** he repeated, slamming to the ground. He stomped towards me, the ground shaking with every step he took. I scrambled backwards, but tendrils of darkness and green wrapped me tight, keeping me pinned.

 **_“I AM THE SPIRIT OF DARKNESS IN YOU, HENRY JEKYLL, AND YOU CANNOT BE RID OF ME. YOU_ ** **_WILL_ ** **_NOT BE RID OF ME. I AM IN YOU, NOW AND FOREVER, AND YOU WILL. NOT. BEST. ME!”_ **

He hauled back, energy wrapping around his fingers and forming into a blade of some kind, a lance of pure hatred and darkness coming into being in his hand. He towered over me, terrifying, and I saw my long and unsuccessful life flash before my eyes. I closed my eyes.

And something in me broke off, away.

My eyes snapped open to see Joseph, barely substantial but somehow still there, holding onto the hand that gripped the deadly weapon and staring directly into the eyes of the Devil himself that had been bearing down on me. His form flickered blue, wisps of energy wrapped around his body, trailing up his hand and down Hyde’s, where they connected.

Super-ego and id stared each other down, unmoving. Hyde gritted his teeth and pushed, but Joseph wasn’t having it. He pushed back, keeping them locked in a position directly over me. London crumbled around us, the rumbling thunder growing stronger and more powerful, tumbling what buildings still stood. Hyde looked mad with anger, green froth dancing past his lips as he stuttered and growled.

 **_“I THOUGHT I KILLED YOU”_ ** he shouted above the din of the destruction around us.

“ _Not quite,”_ Joseph spat, a look of anger that defied his soft features never once leaving.

Hyde snarled and pushed again, almost knocking Joseph over, but he stayed firm. The blue power that danced around him was slowly inching towards Hyde’s chest. Hyde struggled harder as it got closer, panic seeping into his features. **_“NO”_ ** he yelled, to no avail.

 _“Yes,”_ Joseph whispered. _“_ ** _Now_** _.”_

That was my signal. Just as the blue reached his heart, I struck out with the last of my energy, pushing myself off the ground and launching myself at the two. I reached around Joseph, reaching for Hyde’s head and closing my eyes. Together, we pushed, sending him sprawling. Joseph disappeared, leaving me crouching over Hyde with my hands pressed to his temples.

“I banish you from this world, and any other,” I shouted, and focused.

Hyde screamed, the sound shattering my eardrums and sending the world spinning. Shadows thrashed around us, flailing as their energy wore out, and in an instant, it was over.

Hyde disappeared.

I closed my eyes, and passed out, destruction raining down around me.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and here we are. i planned and wrote this entire thing in two days. ho-ly shit. i literally dont know what to say except wow

****_ From the Personal Journal of Dr. Henry Jekyll, October 31, 18- _

_ It has been some time since the whole debacle with Hyde has ended, and I am still quite sure the events were all a dream. Yet unlike a dream, where the moments get foggier as time passes, I remember the incident as clear as it were yesterday, only clearer with time.  _

_ You see, I awoke the day after I banished Hyde to the farthest reaches of Hell, and it was as if nothing had happened! I awoke in my bed, in clean and fixed clothes, in a room where nothing was out of its place, in a city that looked as dingy and disgusting as it did before. I walked into the main house, and Poole, whom I had seen as pale as death not the day before, greeted me and asked my preference for breakfast. Nothing looked remiss, so for the first part of the day, I thought I had dreamt the whole thing up.  _

_ Until I went into my lab, that is. Unlike the rest of the world it seemed, that was put back together after Hyde’s raging tore it apart, the lab was just as much of a mess as we had left it. Scorch marks littered the floor, smashed beakers and spilled chemicals drying where they fell. I stood in stunned silence a moment, before immediately going about tidying up the dangerous mixes.  _

_ It was during this that I found the remnants of the chemical that started this, the one that split Hyde from my entirely and gave him his god-like powers, the one that gave me my powers as well after that. It sat, innocently enough, on the dimmed burner I had set the leftovers on before downing what I needed and tossing the rest. There wasn’t much left, but what was there was the spitting image of what I had made.  _

_ It was too great a coincidence. Something had happened, and something else had wiped it from reality.  _

_ I still have yet to figure it out, but the closest conclusion that I can make is that something happened when I wiped Hyde from existence, that consequently wiped away all evidence of said existence. I am pleased, nonetheless, that London is once again in order, if a little smellier than I remember. It saves on cleanup, and the sudden return of my friends and colleagues is one I am eternally thankful for.  _

_ It is most curious, all the same.  _

_ Not too long after my sudden and unexpected awakening into a world set back to rights, I cleared up all my old experiments. No longer shall I work on separating one’s good and evil side. Those two sides are required in every man to make one whole; without one or the other, he is but a shell with no purpose, empty, or worse. He is his own Hyde. And that is a horror I shall inherit to never push on this world again. So I have burned all my old notes, save a few, and scrapped every bit of the vile concoction that started this mess, all those long months ago. There is none left, and I have erased all trace of its existence, as I did to Hyde.  _

_ He is no more, and never will be again.  _

_ Life has mostly returned to normal. It was lovely seeing Mr. Utterson alive and well, after that gruesome sight I was beholden to during the catastrophe. He was none the wiser, but it was good all the same. Mr. Lanyon and I have returned as friends, and he is most glad I have abandoned my previous work and returned to the hospital, as am I.  _

_ Yes, life is as it was before this whole mess I started, and I am glad. Hopefully, I will be able to live my life without much more drama; I am getting old, and ready to rest for the rest of my years.  _

_ Though cantering around London as Hyde was fun before things turned sour, I shall bid him this last farewell before I forget. He is still a part of me, even if not separate anymore (thank God!).  _

_ Farewell, old friend. May you rot in Hell.  _

* * *

_ P.S. _

_ One of the servants found a most curious inscription on the wall behind my mirror in the cabinet. I had ordered it taken back to my room, as its usefulness there had dried up, but when she went to do so, she found something concerning. Writing, a simple sentence, but in some strange code none of us could figure out. I sent for a translator, thinking it might be some other language I could scarce identify, but it reads more an encrypted code than that, one I cannot decipher.  _

_ All it said, was as follows: “L ZLOO EH EDFN” _

_ It still haunts me, though I am sure it means nothing. Perhaps Hyde left it before the mess of last month started. Perhaps a child ran through here with some paints, bored while I dined with the parents. I don’t know, and frankly, I don’t think I’ll ever find out.  _

_ Oh well. It is not my business.  _


End file.
